


all that you feel

by theformerone



Category: Naruto
Genre: Angst, Canon Compliant, F/M, Fourth Shinobi War, Medical Procedures
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2019-09-26
Updated: 2019-09-26
Packaged: 2020-10-28 07:35:13
Rating: Mature
Warnings: Graphic Depictions Of Violence
Chapters: 1
Words: 1,179
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/20774897
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/theformerone/pseuds/theformerone
Summary: Fucking appendicitis. Part of her almost wasn't surprised. Of course he'd die of something so stupid.for shikasaku day two prompt, mud on our knees





	all that you feel

There is mud on her knees, sucking into her boots, squishing between her toes, dampening her apron, and Sakura knows that this is not a sterile environment, but she doesn't have the time to move this body before another attack comes, or before the rain lets up, so she digs her heals in and she does what she has to do. 

Of all the things to end a shinobi's life, appendicitis seems like the absolute fucking dumbest. But here Shikamaru is, convulsing in her hands, because some hot shot _idiot _in his cell thought they had a solid hand on field medicine in the fucking _rain_, and now not only has Shikamaru's appendix burst inside of him, but the wound was poorly sutured (by that same _idiot_ that didn't know the Mystic Palm) so there's a secondary infection aside from the one spilling bile into Shikamaru's abdominal cavity. 

"Stay with me, asshole," she grumbles, using her own green hands, covered with chakra, to pull out palmfuls and palmfuls of the poison spilled into the cavern of Shikamaru's body. 

A version of Katsuyu is above her, keeping as much of the rain off of Shikamaru's body as possible, but Sakura is still getting pelted pretty hard. She increases the heat of her own chakra minutely, so that the brain burns off by the time it hits her hands, sterilizing them as she dumps the pus into the grass where it sits like awful clumps of white jelly. 

"Ino will eat me alive if I let you go."

She's trying to keep herself from panicking, but this is a shitty fucking job, and she has a hard time focusing. Ino would absolutely eat her if she like Shikamaru die in her hands. Yoshino would probably tell her that it's alright, that she's the best medic since the Godaime, and even the Godaime lost patients. Shikaku would smile at her and offer her a cup of tea and his silence. Her shishou would offer her a drink, and then something to break until Sakura herself started to bleed. Her shishou would understand the best out of all of them. 

Sakura can see herself having a phobia of blood when this is over. Maybe of mud, too. The chakra on her hands is only warm enough to burn the rain, but when Sakura cleans up and bandages this wound, there will be something dried and tacky left underneath her fingernails. She wonders if she will hate the rain after this.

Will hate mud, too. She liked the mud as a little girl, liked sticking her feet in it, and stomping around. It was best when Ino was around, because they'd stomp around in the Yamanaka vegetable garden, and as long as they were helping Ino's mama, it was allowed for them to get that messy. Spring was always the best time of year for mud. Then, and fall. 

Sakura blinks through the rain, watches Shikamaru go pale under her hands. Though her chakra keeps her hands clean, inside of him, Sakura can feel his organs writhe against her. They're trying to escape through the hole she's made. They know inside Shikamaru's body isn't safe for them. They want to get cool in the rain; Sakura can feel Shikamaru burn too hot. His body is trying to kill the infection, but the infection is slipping into his blood faster than Sakura can pull it out of his body. 

"God fucking damn it, Shikamaru."

Fucking appendicitis. Part of her almost wasn't surprised. Of course he'd die of something so stupid. Something Sakura could have fixed with a small incision and her own coaxing fingers. Like she couldn't have done it under heavy fire with steady hands. 

(He had spent a whole night staring at them once, laying her fingers over his face, having her run them through his hair. She had smiled at him, called him catlike for it. He had smiled back at her. 

"Your fingers are so blunt," he'd murmured. "Like you've broken them and healed them a hundred times."

Sakura shrugged a shoulder. It was closer to about eighty, really. 

He laughs at that, presses a kiss at the center of her palm. 

"I've never seen your hands shake," he said. He played with her fingers like a toddler, like an infant discovering the world. He always treated her like something to be uncovered, somehow different, and therefore, to be studied, to be known, to be kissed, and poked, and held like precious stones. "I think the last time was during the Chuunin Exams. When you cut your hair. Your hands haven't shook since then." 

She presses her face down, her hair folding over her shoulders and landing on his cheek. It is so nice to be known. He smiles, and tilts his chin up to meet her kiss.)

Her hands want to shake now, but Sakura is too old. She saves the tremor for later, focuses on the task at hand. 

She removes his appendix and deposits it with little care by her feet. There's no bin to put it in, but she makes a note to bury it. The smell alone would ward off any animal that wanted to eat it. Then again, if Orochimaru or Kabuto survived the war, she was sure the Nara wouldn't appreciate any clones made from Shikamaru's cells. 

She praises her shishou for her training; compartmentalizing was Tsunade's third lesson after how to dodge. 

Sakura resolves to burn the organ when she's finished, but now the problem has started to sink into Shikamaru's blood. The bile, the poison that had once been localized in one organ has already started its migration through his entire body. 

Sakura shuts her eyes, and activates her seal. She lets the white lines of the seal tumble over her face, over her chin, swirling around her body, overlaying her tenketsu system. Sakura knows her blood type; it's fitting for a field medic to be a universal donor. She pulls an antiseptic out of her pouch and wipes down her arm and Shikamaru's. In one of her pockets is a pair of 17-gauge needles, and about three feet of line. 

With her seal activated, she can constantly regenerate her own blood cells while they ferry the poison out of Shikamaru's body and into hers. All the line had to do was connect their blood flow, and Sakura could use her body as a purifier. 

She takes the poison in, under her skin, and grits her teeth. She shuts the new and gnarly scar bisecting his side with a wave of her hand. She breathes slow through her nose and lets her body do the work. It hurts, and by the gods above and below, it _burns. _But a touch of color brighter than grey, brighter than death, comes back to Shikamaru's cheeks, even as Sakura's face pinches with effort. Her seal heals her, and she pushes forward. 

"I told you," she whispers, just below the sound of the rain. Just for him to hear. "I'm not going to let you die."

**Author's Note:**

> the white lined byakugou just looks prettier to me, so i changed the lines from black to white because i felt like it lol


End file.
